Survey was conducted to assess staff perceptions and experiences
Cookeville Regional Medical Center (CRMC) today released the results of its 2025 Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, showing significant improvements across all key indicators and reinforcing the hospital’s commitment to safe, high-quality patient care.
The survey, conducted to assess staff perceptions and experiences regarding patient safety, revealed marked improvements in 10 critical composite measures. These included areas such as:
- communication openness
- teamwork
- reporting of safety events
- and hospital management support for patient safety.
“Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do,” said Buffy Key, CEO of CRMC. “These results reflect the hard work and dedication of our entire team, and our continued commitment to fostering a culture of safety and continuous improvement.”
Highlights from the survey include:
- A 9% increase in communication about errors.
- A 6% improvement in staffing and work pace.
- A 7% overall increase in the hospital-wide culture of safety rating, surpassing the 3% improvement goal set for 2023.
- Composite measure averages improved by 5 percentage points, rising from 66% to 71%.
“We conduct this survey every two year and have since 2011. These are the best results we have ever had. This takes teamwork, communication and accountability,” said Chevelle Johnson, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at CRMC. “We went up all 10 categories, and we also compared to other hospital’s data as well.”
Key initiatives contributing to this success included regular town hall meetings, daily safety huddles, increased communication efforts through internal channels and social media and proactive process improvement teams.
The annual survey is part of CRMC’s strategic initiative to meet the standards set by The Joint Commission (TJC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It also serves as a benchmark for the hospital’s internal performance goals and external comparisons.
As a next step, the hospital’s Culture of Safety Committee will develop targeted action plans based on current survey results to ensure sustained progress and address new opportunities for improvement.
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